Designs have been proposed for containers used with flowable substances wherein a closure is provided for being attached to the container mouth and wherein the closure includes a flip-up spout or nozzle assembly for dispensing the container contents. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,645,086 and 3,516,581.
Although the designs for the closures disclosed in the above-discussed patents may function well for the purposes for which they were designed, the commercial embodiments of such closures must be manually closed. It has occurred to the inventor of the present invention that certain improved structural and operational features would be desirable in many applications.
Specifically, it may be advantageous in some applications to provide a closure with means for urging the closure components to a closed position so as to occlude the flow of the contents through the nozzle assembly.
Further, it would be desirable if such closing means could be operable upon simple release or removal of the manual opening force.
Additionally, it would be beneficial if the closing means in such an improved dispensing closure could be completely hidden in the closure so as not to be visible from the exterior of the closure and so as to be protected from the exterior environment.
Finally, it would be advantageous if the means for effecting this self-closing operation included structural components that could be readily fabricated, preferably by molding the components from thermoplastic materials as a unitary closure structure.